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The differences between customer support specialists and client service specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-12 months to become both a customer support specialist and a client service specialist. Additionally, a client service specialist has an average salary of $40,043, which is higher than the $39,470 average annual salary of a customer support specialist.
The top three skills for a customer support specialist include customer support, phone calls and compassion. The most important skills for a client service specialist are client service, excellent interpersonal, and client facing.
| Customer Support Specialist | Client Service Specialist | |
| Yearly salary | $39,470 | $40,043 |
| Hourly rate | $18.98 | $19.25 |
| Growth rate | -4% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 259,592 | 225,591 |
| Job satisfaction | 1 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 49% | Bachelor's Degree, 61% |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 12 |
A customer support specialist is responsible for assisting a customer's inquiries and concerns regarding the goods and services the organization offers. Customer support specialists handle customer issues and resolve them promptly, escalating high-level complaints to the immediate supervisors. A support specialist will also replace products or process payment refunds as needed. Their goal is to maintain the highest customer satisfaction and keep a good reputation for the company while driving revenues and increasing profitability. A customer support specialist must have outstanding communication skills, as well as the ability to multi-task to record customer complaint cases while providing resolution.
A client service specialist is an individual who fulfills tasks that are related to delivering a product or service to clients. Client service specialists are required to assist project managers in establishing parameters and requirements of a project or work with a particular client. They help in the development of training manuals and materials that are needed by the client to use the newly developed product. Client service specialists must also set up and create archives for client records.
Customer support specialists and client service specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Support Specialist | Client Service Specialist | |
| Average salary | $39,470 | $40,043 |
| Salary range | Between $28,000 And $55,000 | Between $26,000 And $61,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | New York, NY |
| Highest paying state | Rhode Island | New York |
| Best paying company | Micron Technology | Moody's |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Finance |
There are a few differences between a customer support specialist and a client service specialist in terms of educational background:
| Customer Support Specialist | Client Service Specialist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 49% | Bachelor's Degree, 61% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between customer support specialists' and client service specialists' demographics:
| Customer Support Specialist | Client Service Specialist | |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 37.4% Female, 62.6% | Male, 29.5% Female, 70.5% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.5% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 19.9% Asian, 7.2% White, 55.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% | Black or African American, 11.2% Unknown, 5.5% Hispanic or Latino, 19.9% Asian, 7.0% White, 55.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |